Tuesday, September 2, 2014

DRACULA: Blu-ray (Universal 1931) Universal Home Video

Fear of the
unknown is a popular elixir among movie goers. The supernatural, with all its
mysteries and danger has endured as a cornerstone in pop culture because,
secretly, human beings are drawn to the unexplained. Remember what they said
about curiosity and the cat? Fear and excitement are really first cousins,
tantalizing our intellect with the promise of more to follow. The allure is
even more profound and – on occasion - toxic when it is sheathed in a sort of
fetishistic sexual attraction. Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, better known to
American audiences as Bela Lugosi, may have seemed an unusual choice as the
recipient of such adulation from adoring female fans, but this Hungarian-born
sophisticate was to experience a surge in popularity after his debut in Tod
Browning’s Dracula (1931); an iconic
re-envisioning of the classic Bram Stoker horror story.

The roots ofDracula can be traced all the way back
in history to Voivode of Wallachia, (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler); a prince in name
only, belonging to the House of Drăculești, and whose practice of impaling his
enemies on spikes (rumored to have totaled in the tens of thousands) earned him
a very bloody reputation in Central Europe between 1456 and 1462. Stoker’s take
on ‘Dracula’ retained some of Vlad’s
more promiscuous bloodlust, blending history with a new mythology about this
morbidly undead creature, who feasted on innocents to remain eternal; so far,
hardly a prospect most of us would find even remotely sexually arousing.

Ah, but then
came the movies with their ability to conjure to mind any fantasy imaginable,
their visual trickery making the impossible probable and blurring the lines
between reality and escapism. The illusions only possible in the movies were the
subject of many an early experimenter; the elaborately concocted becoming the
art of the early ‘magic lantern’ show. In 1922, director F.W. Murnau created
the definitive homage to Stoker’s bloodsucker with Nosferatu – an expressionist masterpiece that, unfortunately, did
not have the consent of Stoker’s widow. As such, a lengthy and costly lawsuit
ensued, concluding with a court decree ordering all prints of Nosferatu destroyed. Thankfully, all
prints were not and the film today does indeed survive.

Nosferatu is, in fact, a far more faithful interpretation of
Stoker’s demonic creature of the night than any of the various incarnations soon
to follow it – including Browning’s Dracula.
Partly to skirt the issue of rights, the influential Broadway reincarnation of
‘Dracula’ by Hamilton Deane and John
L. Balderston significantly deviates from the Stoker novel, Dracula now transformed into an elegant
– if mysterious – European sophisticate whose ‘alternative lifestyle’ is not immediately apparent. The play was a
resounding smash and Carl Laemmle Jr. – into whose capable hands the fate of
Universal had been placed at the tender age of 23, felt reasonably confident Dracula would resurrect the studio’s
waning box office. The Deane/Balderston play was already a proven commodity.
But perhaps the best thing about it was the discovery of that vampire essence
in Bela Lugosi; a soft-spoken Hungarian with a unique and deliberate cadence in
his phonetically-learned English who, ironically, was first passed over to
reprise his role in the movie.

By all
accounts the shooting of Dracula was
chaotic; Browning relying heavily on Karl Freund to lens many of the scenes,
while the script by Garret Fort daily evolved as a work in progress. To
complicate matters and inflate the overall budget, in the days before
post-syncing made it possible to overdub actors for the foreign language
market, Draculawas photographed
twice; by day by Browning, then at night with an all-Spanish cast after the Browning
unit had gone home. Viewing the two movies side by side, one is awestruck by
Browning’s restraint, and the punctuated visual splendor of the Spanish
language version. They’re really two separate experiences; the Browning version
relying on Lugosi’s intangible ‘charm’ – at once both inviting yet terrifying –
to carry many of the sequences, while the Spanish version explores the mobility
of the camera with some fairly impressive cinematography. The liquidity of this
camerawork does much to mask the shortcomings of its star, Carlos Villarias;
who adapts Dracula as the leering
and clichéd figure of Gothic terror.

But Browning’s
version had Lugosi and the actor gives a startling – occasionally bone-chilling
– performance as the diabolical Count who keeps vampire brides in his castle
cellar. Our tale begins with solicitor,
Renfield’s (Dwight Frye) perilous journey to Castle Dracula. The Count assures
his victim no harm will come to him, but later hypnotizes and devours
Renfield. The master and his now hapless
slave, having gone mad from being bitten by the vampire, board a schooner for
England. Renfield is committed to a sanatorium and Dracula meets the kindly Dr.
Seward (Herbert Bunston) his daughter, Mina (Helen Chander), her fiancée, John
Harker (David Manners) and a close friend, Lucy Weston (Frances Dade) while
attending the theatre.

Lucy becomes
transfixed by Dracula who wastes no time feasting on her blood. When Lucy dies
from this encounter, an autopsy reveals two small puncture wounds on her neck.
Meanwhile, Renfield’s obsession with eating bugs causes Professor Van Helsing
(Edward Van Sloan) to do an analysis of his patient’s blood. Dracula turns his
attentions to Mina. Although his love bite does not destroy her, Mina too
becomes dreamlike and aloof. Thus, when Dracula returns for a more cordial
visit, Van Helsing and Harker quietly deduce he is responsible for their recent
tragedies, especially after Dracula shows no reflection in a mirror.

Meanwhile,
Lucy has risen from the dead to prey upon young children in the park. Van
Helsing plans to take Mina away to spare her a similar fate, but instead orders
Nurse Briggs (Joan Standing) to guard her with a wreath of wolf bane. Dracula
attempts to hypnotize Van Helsing but is driven back by the crucifix. After
Dracula’s hypnotic compelling of Mina to bite Harker fails, Harker and Van
Helsing pursue Dracula to his coffin and wait for daylight, whereupon Van
Helsing drives a stake through the Count’s heart, thus releasing Mina from his
curse.

Viewed today, Dracula is hardly as profound or as
disturbing as it must have seemed to audiences back in 1931. And yet, it
retains an air of palpable foreboding, thanks to the meticulous craftsmanship
afforded by John Hoffman and Herman Rosse’s mammoth production design, creating
some truly sumptuous and spooky visuals, superbly lensed by cinematographer,
Karl Freund. Yet, the crux of the movie’s success remains Bela Lugosi. From the
moment we are introduced to this incandescent glowing-eyed Count, thick black
hair slicked back to reveal his severe widow’s peak, his murderous intent
thinly disguised beneath a strained, but still very affable smile; Legosi seems
to exemplify not only this avaricious terror but also a luxuriant – nee decadent
– old world charm. At a time when American audiences were genuinely fascinated by
European folkelore, Draculaemerged
as something of a thoroughly devious reconstitution of this romanticism,
brought tragically forth to wreak havoc on the 20th century.

Draculais tame by today’s standards. Film censorship had yet
to take complete hold of the industry, but its early signs are already in
place. Universal was, in fact, ‘encouraged’ to keep the story’s more suggestive
aspects at bay. Perhaps more out of concern his audiences might be repulsed
rather than intrigued by this tale, Carl Laemmle Jr. elected to merely imply
Dracula’s ‘shape-shifting conversion’ from bat to man; his ‘relationship’ with
the undead catatonic brides in his cellar also inferred rather than explained.
Indeed, the most visually repugnant aspect of the movie remains Dwight Frye’s
Renfield. The actor had been considered something of a rising star with great
potential as a leading man prior to the release ofDracula. Afterward, the public would not accept Frye as anything
but variations of this insane, bug-eating victim destined for the asylum or
worse.

Dracula also typecast Bela Lugosi. Today, we tend to forget Lugosi
only played Count Dracula twice; in this 1931 original, and then as pure camp
in Universal’s hilarious spoof horror/comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). In the interim,
Lugosi’s movie career greatly suffered. Infrequently cast as a demented
henchman in support of Boris Karloff, this stereotype clung to his reputation
as an actor, despite the fact, in reality, he was a relatively soft-spoken,
genial and well-read connoisseur of fine art and music. Bowing to the will of
the public’s fascination to see him repeatedly resurrected as these monstrous
dregs, Lugosi eventually allowed this line between his personal and public life
to blur; becoming something of a cliché of his former self in later years. He
was buried in full Dracula regalia in 1956.

Today,
Lugosi’s legacy as the Count has virtually eclipsed both the stature and the
reputation of Braum Stoker’s original novel. It really is a remarkable
achievement considering virtually every film maker since 1931 has had to
reference Lugosi’s iconography in one form or another to re-tell the story.
Remember, the concept of the widow’s peaked, elegantly attired patron with cape
and walking stick are not part of Stoker’s novel. They have absolutely nothing
to do with the historical trappings either.
Yet, ask most anyone today to conjure to mind the image of the vampire and
a cheap imitation of Lugosi’s Hungarian accent mimicking the lines “I want to suck your blood” or “Look into my eyes…blah, blah, blah” are
likely to be recreated. If nothing else, Lugosi has achieved the same
sempiternity as his darker creation. His Draculais
an immortal.

Universal’s
re-release of Draculasports the
same exceptional 1080p transfer. If you already own the previous release there’s
no need for a repurchase here. Dracula
has undergone a formidable restoration using original nitrate elements. Minor
imperfections still exist – contrast fluctuations, scratches and specks. But
the overall presentation is one of startling clarity, depth and detail.
Contrast correction has produced inky black levels and a pluperfect midrange of
tonal grays with excellent reproduction of grain. The image is both crisp and
clean. While DNR has been applied, the effect achieved has not obscured fine
details.

The inherent
shortcomings of the original noise floor are faithfully reproduced in DTS-HD
mono, forgivable and tempered by an even more aggressive restoration
effort. Through their technological
wizardry, Universal has managed to salvage virtually all of the monaural clarity
in dialogue and effects while marginalizing the hiss and pop that for decades
has plagued Dracula’s sonic presentation. Extras are plentiful to say the
least; the 35 min. vintage ‘making-of’ hosted by Carla Laemmle, two
comprehensive audio commentaries, one by David J. Skal, the other by Steve
Haberman, a 36 min. biography on Bela Lugosi; the Spanish version (also
meticulously restored and presented in 1080p), an introduction to the Spanish
version by Lupita Tovar; an alternative stereo score composed by Philip Glass,
archives of vintage poster art, marketing and other photographic stills,
‘monster tracks’ that provides a litany of trivia on the movie, trailers for
all of the movies in the Draculafranchise,
and finally, a 9 min. look at how Universal restored both versions for this
hi-def release. Bottom line: highly recommended if you don’t already own the
Universal Classic Monsters box set. My only caveat would be…why don’t you own it?

About Me

Nick Zegarac is a freelance writer/editor and graphics artist. He holds a Masters in Communications and an Honors B.A in Creative Lit from the University of Windsor.
He is currently a freelance writer and has been a contributing editor for Black Moss Press and is a featured contributor to online's The Subtle Tea. He's also has had two screenplays under consideration in Hollywood.
Last year he finished his first novel and is currently searching for an agent to represent him.
Contact Nick via email at movieman@sympatico.ca